Particularly with heavy vehicles such as trucks, tractor trailers and buses, rain, snow, dust and rocks may be sprayed during movement, depending upon the type and condition of the roadway upon which such vehicle is travelling. Such spray may make it impossible to pass the vehicle safely or make it dangerous or hazardous to follow behind. When there is moisture on the roadway, this spray, at times, may be so intense as it is thrown on to the windshields of following vehicles that driving visibility may be reduced to a dangerous minimum. Similarly, since the spray is thrown laterally by the wheels of tractor trailers having multiple wheel systems, a similar problem is developed with respect to vehicles attempting to pass such tractor trailers. Because the wheels of such trucks are so large, water may be thrown laterally from the top of these wheels at the level of passenger car windshields, again producing a serious hazard to such a vehicle which attempts to pass a tractor trailer.
Such a problem has been previously recognized and many solutions proposed. For example U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,904,343, issued Apr. 18, 1933, to Zaiger, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,606, issued May 10, 1983, to Lightle, et al., and Canadian Pat. No. 360,425, issued Sept. 8, 1936, to Cohen describe and illustrate different constructions of spray shields for automobiles consisting of solid sheets of varying surface contours. Such constructions, providing a solid wall against which the spray from the wheel is projected, tend to deflect the spray laterally. In the case of the Lightle, et al. device, the surface against which spray is projected is provided with a matrix of upstanding projections which would tend to collect mud and dirt and, in cold climates, snow and ice, thereby limiting its effectiveness. Long U.S. Pat. No. 2,782,053, issued Feb. 19, 1957 and Barry, et al. Canadian Pat. No. 694,985, issued Sept. 29, 1964, both describe and illustrate more complicated constructions of spray shields for vehicles, the shields being provided with louvers for permitting air and spray to pass through the shield but directing them downwardly as they pass through. The Long reference teaches a plurality of overlapping metal louvers, suspended downwardly at their ends, from spaced chains. In the Barry, et al. reference the louvers are fixed to the rear face of a screen panel. With such constructions made up of a number of mechanical parts, there is again a danger, in cold climates, that they will become frozen and/or clogged by snow and ice, thereby rendering them inoperative.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a spray shield which will deflect downwardly and to one side spray from the wheels of a vehicle. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a device which will minimize air resistance against the forward surface of such a shield and which will be less prone to problems from cold driving conditions such as clogging or freezing. It is the further object of the present invention to provide such a spray shield which is relatively simple and economical to construct.